[wordup] Court confirms DMCA 'good faith' web site shut down rights

[Adam Shand]

From: http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/30943.html

Court confirms DMCA 'good faith' web site shut down rights
By Ashlee Vance in San Francisco
Posted: 30/05/2003 at 05:39 GMT

A U.S. court has extended the power of the DMCA even further with a 
ruling this week that backs up copyright holders' ability to shut down a 
Web site on "good faith."

InternetMovies.com had asked the District Court for the District of 
Hawaii to require that copyright holders investigate infringing Web 
sites before shutting them down. This rational request was rejected by 
the court, as its granted the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of 
America) and any other DMCA zealot the right to put the clamp on Web 
sites at will.

"This decision rules that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) 
does not require a copyright holder to conduct an investigation to 
establish actual infringement prior to sending notice to an Internet 
Service Provider (ISP) requiring them to shut-down an allegedly 
infringing web site, or stopping service all together to an alleged 
violator," InternetMovies.com said in a statement.

In the land of the DMCA, a "good faith belief" of infringement makes it 
possible to hijack a Web site without investigation.

This decision seems to have thrown a large chunk of the Internet into a 
virtual Guantanamo Bay. The U.S. military describes its Cuban compound 
as the least worst place , which is an apt take on where Internet users 
appear to be.

InternetMovies.com claims to have provided little else other than movie 
trailers to upcoming flicks. Some would characterize this as a service 
for the movie industry, but the MPAA saw things in a different light.

After issuing several cease and desist orders, the MPAA shut down 
InternetMovies.com in 2001. The movie site then fought back by filing a 
lawsuit against the MPAA last year, claiming it did not provide 
copyrighted content to users at all.

Despite the recent setback, InternetMovies.com plans to continues the 
legal battle with the MPAA by filing an appeal with U.S. Court of 
Appeals of the Ninth Circuit here in San Francisco.

The company hopes to cut off a path for various DMCA zealots trying to 
shut the Internet down.

"This has serious implications to university campuses as many students 
and faculty use the school as ISPs and any copyright holder can seek to 
lawfully shut down whole university networks or obtain individual 
identity without an investigation under the protection of the DMCA," 
InternetMovies.com said in the statement.

This recent decision builds on a disturbing trend where no Internet user 
is safe from copyright holders' prying eyes.

For example, four Ohio State University students had their computers 
seized in a raid earlier this month and have yet to be charged with a 
crime. They've been banned from using the Internet at school and still 
have not received their kit back.

It's dangerous out there on the Web these days. Please, dear readers, 
surf with caution. ®